


Climate Change

by glimmerglanger



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Happy Infinity War AU, M/M, Post-Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Secret Relationship, Thunderstorms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-30
Updated: 2019-09-30
Packaged: 2020-11-08 04:57:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20829782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glimmerglanger/pseuds/glimmerglanger
Summary: “Storms?”“Mm, you must have noticed them, big thunder storms, lots of rain, lightning, all situated, you know, right here? Thought maybe they had something to do with you.”Thor glanced across at Loki, who only shrugged back. “It is possible that I may be influencing local weather patterns,” Thor said, after a moment.OR, the one where the Asgardians make it to Earth, weather-related shenanigans ensue, and Tony desperately wants to find out how Thor makes it storm on a whim.





	Climate Change

**Author's Note:**

> Steadily working through the last of these thorki plot bunnies! Finally finished probably my only silly one?
> 
> Anyway, set in an AU where Gamora, Nebula, and the rest of the crew go to wipe out Thanos at the end of GotG2, before he gets any Infinity Stones, thereby negating all Stone related heartbreak. The Asgardians make it safely to Earth and so on.

Tony’d never really appreciated unexpected house guests.

His feelings failed to change when those house guests happened to be several thousand intergalactic refugees, settling into orbit around Earth and asking if they couldn’t stay over for, you know, a few hundred years. Just until they had time to get back on their feet.

Still, unexpected or not, it was hard to turn away a bunch of people who had just had their planet blown to itty-bitty pieces, especially, as it turned out, when they were led by Thor. He had unexpected reserves of charisma, it seemed, deployed to full effect against world leaders and the planet as a whole.

Which was, Tony supposed, how the Asgardians had ended up settling in a few areas throughout Greenland and Iceland.

The only major sticking point had been Loki, who lounged at Thor’s side throughout their careful negotiations, ready to flash the unwary with a smile at any point. There was talk of trying him, arguments about how, exactly, they’d jail him, endless discussions, until Loki had rolled his eyes and said, “I can go, if it’d make everyone happier.”

“No,” Thor said, dashing smile fading for the first time in their negotiations, reaching out to rest a hand on Loki’s shoulder, and so they’d argued some more, until Loki made promises to help with planetary defenses, Thor promised to watch him closely, and everyone left feeling appropriately bribed.

Tony figured the entire thing would blow up in their faces within the year, but no one ever listened to his warnings. Even Pepper only said, “I’m sure it’ll work out, not everything has to result in the end of the world.”

#

So, of course, the storms started almost immediately. Less than a day after the Asgardians began arriving in force, a massive thunderstorm settled over their primary settlement. More followed in the coming days, as meteorologists struggled to offer up an explanation and yelled about flooding and property damage.

Sometimes, Tony hated being right.

He decided to go visit the Asgardians on his own, on the tail end of yet another thunderstorm. A very fetching young woman, heavily armored and bearing a sword, directed him to a little cabin upon arrival. He banged on the door and waited.

Loki ended up answering, his hair down around his shoulders in a tangle, wearing a shirt that was too big and a frown. “Thor,” he called over his shoulder, “one of your friends is visiting. Come in.” He stepped back from the door, waving at Tony. “Sit down. Do you want something to drink?”

The inside of the cabin was homey enough. It would have fit entirely into Tony’s bedroom in any of his properties. He sat on a couch with deep indents in the cushions and said, “Sure, why not?”

Thor finally appeared by the time Loki brought over a mug full of something that smelled sweet and alcoholic. Tony held it, blinking at Thor, who wore no shirt and seemed not to care, sinking loose-limbed down into a plaid-covered chair across from Tony with a smile. “Stark,” he said, “I’m glad you’ve visited.”

Tony took a drink and raised his eyebrows down at the cup. It tasted almost sour on the tongue and it was warm. He said, after shrugging and taking another swallow, “Yeah, thought I’d stop in, see the new place, make sure you were settling in, talk to you about all these storms.”

Thor’s smile faded a bit. “Storms?”

“Mm, you must have noticed them, big thunder storms, lots of rain, lightning, all situated, you know, right here? Thought maybe they had something to do with you.”

Thor glanced across at Loki, who only shrugged back. “It is possible that I may be influencing local weather patterns,” Thor said, after a moment. 

Tony nodded. “Right, yes, because you’re,” he waved a hand, “the God of Thunder. Makes sense. See, though, the problem is that this area isn’t especially known for having hour long thunderstorms this time of year. Several times a day. It’s causing some problems. Flooding. Crop damage. You know.”

Thor leaned back in his chair. He looked guilty. “Ah,” he said. “Well, we definitely don’t want that.”

“We really don’t. So, you can…” Tony gestured with the mug. The liquor was growing on him. “Stop. With the thunderstorms. Right?”

Loki snorted a laugh. When Tony glanced at him, he was fiddling with the hem of his shirt. Tony’d never seen him wearing red before, it was--

Thor cleared his throat. “That would be difficult. But, the thunderstorms don’t have to occur here. Is there an area of your planet where they would not be seen as unusual or damaging?”

And _that_ was how Tony ended up spending the best part of an hour researching weather patterns, eventually settling on a few areas that would be used enough to an afternoon thunderstorm or three.

“You have my thanks,” Thor said, looking down at the list Tony handed him. “We will endeavor to take greater care to respect your planet’s weather in the future.”

“Great,” Tony said, wondering absently if Loki caused thunderstorms, too. Maybe all aliens did. “See that you do.”

#

There were no more hour long, unseasonal thunderstorms above the Asgardian settlements, after that. Sometimes they started there, before disappearing to positions here or there, generally around the equator.

Tony nodded, satisfied with a problem handled before it even became a problem.

#

And that might have been that, except that apparently he wasn’t the only person who had noticed the strange weather phenomena and put two-and-two together to get four. It seemed that some meteorologists visited Thorheim as well.

And it seemed that they reported on Thor’s apparent ability to generate a storm at-will on every major news network they could find.

And it took everyone else in the world about two seconds after that to realize that a guy who could make it rain whenever he wanted could be pretty damn useful to, oh, say any areas currently experiencing a drought.

Tony kept an absent eye on Thor and Loki’s - it seemed strange that Loki always tagged along, but maybe Thor was just making sure he didn’t run off to cause another war - tour of drought-stricken areas around the globe.

Sometimes they visited three or four areas a day, magic moving them tremendous distances, where they caused storms that lasted upwards of an hour.

He decided to drop in on them, one day when they ended up fairly close to his compound in California. He arrived during the storm, landing with rain splattering across his armor and scanning the area.

He’d expected, vaguely, to find Thor standing in an open field somewhere, face turned heavenward, arms outstretched, the storm dancing above him. He didn’t find that. In fact, he didn’t find either Thor or Loki until he finally ducked into a local bar to ask around.

The locals all thought Thor and Loki were holed up in the closest thing the area had to a fancy hotel. It seemed like a strange place to do storm magic, but what did Tony know. He wasn’t a magical alien. He shrugged and headed over to the _honeymoon suite_ of what turned out to be a little three story hotel, and grinned, lining up teasing zingers in his head as he knocked on the door.

No one answered.

He frowned, looking up and down the hallway. No one was watching, ready to jump out and laugh. He knocked again, there was a particularly loud crack of thunder, and then the storm just--stopped.

A moment later the door jerked open, Thor glowering on the other side, his hair wet, though the armor he was wearing looked dry. “What?” he demanded.

“Wow, good to see you, too,” Tony said, trying to crane his neck around to see past Thor’s shoulder. “Really glad I decided to make time in my busy schedule to come see you.”

A muscle in Thor’s jaw jumped. He said, “Of course I am pleased that you have visited. But now isn’t--”

“I thought maybe you could show me, you know, how you make the storm,” Tony said, attempting to move into the room. Thor kept an arm stretched out, gripping the door frame, and did not look inclined to give ground. Tony raised his eyebrows. 

“No,” Thor said, without a hint of a smile.

“Really?” Tony did his best to look hurt. “I won’t bother you. I just want to watch--”

Thor closed the door. Tony tried the knob - he hadn’t _really_ cared that much, before, but the abrupt refusal to even entertain the idea of showing him made him want to see exactly how the storm was made - and, for his trouble, received a sharp shock up his arm.

“Ow,” he complained, to no-one, shaking out his arm and activating his armor. Fine. He didn’t need to be inside to see, he could just--

Trying to peer through the walls gave him a look at nothing but a massive white expanse. It was like there was nothing there. Magic. It had to be. He scowled and considered banging on the door again, but Pepper called, then, and distracted him.

#

Pepper kept Tony from pursuing the mystery of How Thor Made It Rain temporarily, but the question ate away at him nonetheless. He hated not knowing how things worked, even, it seemed, magic alien things. 

He asked around in the other towns they’d visited, trying to see if anyone else had gotten a look at the process. Apparently, they camped out in the nicest digs in town before starting the ritual, or whatever, and didn’t come out until they were done.

“But aren’t you curious?” Tony demanded, when yet another farmer just shrugged with indifference in the face of his questions.

“Mostly,” the man said, “I’m just glad the corn is coming back to life. I don’t care how they do it.”

Not even the Asgardians would talk to Tony about it. They clammed right up when he asked and always hurried away. Sometimes he thought they were laughing at him as they went.

#

Tony, it seemed, would just have to be curious enough for everyone else in the world combined. He frowned, holding onto his questions until the next time he saw them, in the aftermath of a fight with some weird giant bug things that had decided to attack, of all places, Florida.

Tony waited until the fighting was over, wiping goo off of his armor, and then said, “Look, why can’t I watch?”

Thor turned to boggle at him. “You--it is private. Surely you have privacy on Midgard.”

Tony frowned. “Loki gets to see,” he said, gesturing to where Loki was currently having what seemed to be an engaging conversation with the Queen of the bug things. Fighting had stopped after they’d found her egg room. They appeared to be in negotiations. Tony wondered exactly _how_ Loki was making those noises with his throat.

“Loki…” Thor flushed, strangely, across the tips of his ears. “That’s different.”

“Because he’s helping you,” Tony said, waving off more gunk. “Right? He’s part of the whole…” He waved a hand. 

Thor looked briefly relieved. “Yes, he’s--”

“So I could help you,” Tony said. “Obviously your helper doesn’t have to be Asgardian. What do you say, want to make beautiful storms together?”

Across from them, negotiations suddenly stopped. The air went quiet in the absence of weird clicking sounds. Tony glanced over to find Loki frowning at him, a creeping chill forming between his shoulder blades. Loki said, eyes cold, “Thor, I could very much use your help.”

“But--”

But Thor had turned aside, walking off with his shoulders stiff, towards Loki, who frowned at Tony a moment further before resuming his discussion with the Queen. 

#

A brutal storm sprang up after the day was, finally, saved. It raged and raged. Tony felt deeply sure it was storming _at_ him and scowled. 

#

So, no one who was getting help from the storms cared how they were happening. Thor obviously didn’t want to discuss it; maybe he had to do something incredibly embarrassing to make it happen? But then why was he doing it so often, even before people started requesting his services?

Tony had too many questions and not enough answers. The only thing he knew for sure was that Thor needed Loki to make the storms.

Which meant Loki had to know how they happened. Tony waited until they ran into one another - it didn’t take very long when Tony waited outside Thor and Loki’s cabin in New Asgard - and then fell into step beside Loki when he stepped out, wearing a sweater and jeans. 

“Hey,” Tony said, flashing him a smile that Loki didn’t return. “Fancy meeting you here.”

Loki narrowed his eyes. “Thor is out,” he said.

Tony waved a hand. “I don’t want to talk to Thor. I want to talk to you. We don’t talk enough. I barely even know you and--”

“What, exactly, do you want to talk about?” Loki asked, turning down a side street, apparently at random. “No, let me guess. Are you interested in the storms?”

Tony’s sense of shame had died long, long ago. He quirked his mouth up into a smile. “It’s funny you should mention the storms. I’ve been wondering exactly how he makes them. I don’t suppose you know?”

Loki drew to a stop, head cocked to the side. He asked, “Do you really want to know?”

Tony nodded, couldn’t help it. “I really do,” he said.

Loki smiled, then, sharp and fast. “It’s good to want things you can’t have,” he said, turning aside.

Tony squawked out a protest, moving after him, but he faded into the air and disappeared.

#

Time passed. The storms continued. Tony made no progress in his quest to determine, exactly, how they continued. No one else even seemed to care. Not even Natasha, who he had assumed would want to know just for the hell of being the only person who did.

Hell, Tony had sought her out and broken the silence that had settled between their two groups _just_ out of the hope that she would be every bit as interested as him in what was going on.

She hadn’t been. 

On the plus side, though, she brought Rogers and the rest of their merry bunch along next time a supervillain attacked, everyone ended up saving one another’s lives, old wounds were healed, a new day dawned, and so on.

It was all very touching, until Tony realized that the fight they’d been waging appeared to have caught most of California on fire. Which was… a problem. A problem, he thought, looking towards Thor - who was currently fussing over a wound Loki had taken - that they might be able to solve. 

“Look,” Tony said, strolling up, struggling not to cough on the smoke filling the air around them. “This fire, it’s out of control and it’s only going to get worse.”

Thor blinked at him. He looked almost as tired as the rest of them. “Surely your people have some way to handle that,” he said, as though the forest was not merrily burning down at their backs. The flames had probably reached some of the closer towns already.

“We do,” Tony said, pausing for dramatic effect more than anything else. “But it’s going to take them time to get here. And time to put this out. We’ve all seen the storms you can create. You could, you know, take care of it now.”

Thor frowned at him, before glancing back at Loki, who had got caught in a tangle at one point and now looked, very much, like he needed more medical care than Thor had so far offered. Thor shook his head, “That’s--I can’t.”

“Why?” Tony frowned up. This was likely the best chance he was going to get to find out _how the storms happened_ and he knew it. “You can do it any other time. Just--just go over there and make it rain!”

Thor shifted his weight from foot to foot. “It’s not that--Loki is--”

“Look, can’t--does it have to be Loki? Can’t I help you?” Tony offered, bouncing his eyebrows. Loki stiffened, shooting him a glare that was, okay, a bit intimidating after all he’d seen the two of them do. Tony soldiered on. “I’ve offered before, I don’t mind, I--”

“No,” Thor said, scowling nearly as fiercely. “It can only be Loki.”

And that got Loki’s attention off of Tony, at least. He turned to stare fully at Thor. “Really?”

Thor smiled back at him, softly, reaching out to touch his hand. “Of course. I--surely you knew that?”

Loki stood, smothering a wince and curling his hand around Thor’s shoulder. “I know it now. Thor will handle the fire. I’ll help.” Thor’s expression did something interesting, before shutting down completely. “But the rest of you will need to get back.”

“Seriously?” Tony grumbled.

“It’s dangerous--” Thor started, and Tony scowled, shaking his head.

“No, nuh uh, it is not. You’ve made it storm in cheap hotels across the nation, so don’t pull that one.”

“Thor can’t perform while other people are watching,” Loki said. “So, if you’d like him to stop the entirety of the surrounding area from burning down, I suggest that you turn around and start walking.”

There was really no other argument to be made after that. They gathered themselves up as best they could, turned, and started walking, limping, and dragging themselves along. Loki said, as they moved away, “Really, just me?”

“Really,” Thor said, his voice low and quiet. “Just you. But you are hurt, we--”

“You’ll just have to be careful,” Loki said, airy, and then the others were too far away to overhear anymore. Besides, the thunder started shortly after, along with the first stinging drops of rain, a brief prelude to a torrential downpour that left them all soaked and bedraggled by the time they reached the emergency barricades finally set up, almost a mile away.

#

Thor and Loki appeared in front of the self-same barricade hours later in a flash of rainbow colored light. They were leaning on one another. Loki had Thor’s cloak wrapped around his shoulders and there were leaves stuck in his hair. He wore no shoes and there was a redness to his throat and jaw. 

Thor looked distressingly pleased for a man standing in a downpour, the storm only just starting to break up and drift away. He said, beaming, “My friends, I return to let you know that the fires are put out, but we cannot stay to celebrate.”

“Oh, yeah?” Tony asked, frowning. Loki had a certain look about him that kicked at Tony’s memories. “Why is that?”

“We must travel off-world for a bit,” Thor said, throwing an arm around Loki’s shoulders and drawing him closer. “I worry what the coming storm would do to your planet.”

Steve made his way over, then, finished handing out emergency blankets. He said, rotating his shoulder. “Are you sure? I mean… are you both okay?”

“Oh, I’m fine,” Loki said, smiling widely. “Better than fine, really.”

“Your concern is appreciated,” Thor said, bending, then, to lift Loki. “We will return,” he said, and they were swallowed once more in blinding light.

“That was weird,” Tony said, frowning down at the fading design left in the ground by whatever Thor had done. “Right? They were acting weird?”

Steve shrugged. 

#

Thor and Loki came back, eventually. Tony noticed when strange storms started popping up again, here and there. He didn’t get a chance to see them - a little stung, to be honest, about the continual refusals to _let him see what the hell they were doing_ \- until they all got invitations to some kind of seminar or the other Dr. Jane Foster was putting on.

Tony went. It sounded interesting and also he was ready to wage another information-gathering offensive on Thor.

He ended up having to settle on Foster, who knew more than most about Thor, anyway. “So,” he asked, once the night was well along and the reception was winding down. Thor and Loki had disappeared some time ago, and thunder was beginning to rumble through the air. Jane’d taken a long, long drink at the first spatter of rain against the windows. “Do you know how Thor makes it rain?”

Jane glanced up at him. She had color in her cheeks. Tony offered her a fresh drink. “Oh,” Jane said, taking the drink with a smile. “Well, yes. Of course.” 

“Oh, do you?” Tony said, sliding in a little closer, his eyebrows up. He gestured Bruce, who had accompanied him with a lot of eye-rolling, over.

The tips of Jane’s ears tinged red. She nodded, just a little, and took a swallow of her drink. “I mean, we must have set new yearly records for rainfall in the area when we were… together. And he was only ever around for a few weeks.”

Tony’s mouth fell open. “Wait,” Bruce said, almost upsetting a chair as he moved closer, giving up the pretense that he wasn’t eavesdropping. “Wait, it takes… togethering?”

The ferocity of Jane’s blush looked like it should be putting off heat. “Yes,” she said. “I mean, that’s, maybe not always? But when we were…” she made a gesture that would have been universally understood. “It always stormed. I’m happy that he’s found someone new. He took the breakup really hard.”

“Yeah,” Tony said, blinking behind his dark glasses. “That’s, but who, because--”

“It must be one of the Asgardians,” Jane said, pausing to slam back the last swallow of her drink. “I don’t think any human would be able to go this long.” A long, slow roll of thunder punctuated her statement.

Tony looked over at Bruce, raising an eyebrow as dominos fell one after another in his mind. “No,” he said, “surely not.” He turned on his heel, then, setting his drink down and moving towards the door.

Bruce grabbed him before he could escape the room, pulling him back. “They’re _really_ not going to let you watch,” Bruce said. 

“But--”

“Just have a drink,” Jane said, waving over a waiter. “You can always set up one of your little surveillance bots outside his door in the morning, and I wanted to talk to you about options for accessing this intergalactic transport system that’s apparently out there, anyway.”

Tony hesitated for a moment. On the one hand, he was not a patient man and dearly wanted to go find out if he was right immediately. On the other hand, there was next to no chance Thor and Loki were going to give him visual confirmation. And… science. He nodded and took a drink.

Morning wasn’t that far away, anyway.


End file.
